About

Team

With a vision to be the “First Choice, First Called” by the E&P industry for open water response, CGA provides a means for all member companies to have access to quality response equipment and personnel.

Our most vital resource at Clean Gulf Associates (CGA) is people—from executive leadership to response staff, and even beyond to our colleagues and corporate partners—whose character, work ethic, and training have elevated their efforts as well as our shared reputation.

Whatever the individual or role, we embrace professional values of teamwork and creative freedom that make all of us, and the services we provide to our members, even better.

Frank Paskewich is currently serving as the President of Clean Gulf Associates, Inc. During his tenure, CGA has dramatically expanded its extensive oil spill response capability including acquisition of a new retrofitted BT67 turbo prop dispersant aircraft, a significant increase in CGA owned mechanical recovery and contracted surge equipment that has quadrupled CGA’s effective daily recovery capacity, and an improved wildlife rehabilitation capability. Prior to this position, he served in the U.S. Coast Guard for 26 years, retiring at the rank of Captain while serving as Captain of the Port in New Orleans, LA. He served as the Coast Guard’s Incident Commander for response operations during Hurricane Katrina, and has been involved in numerous responses over the last two decades including the Houston Fire and Floods in 1994, the 5000 barrel Buffalo 292 oil spill in Galveston Bay, the explosion to the OMI Charger in the Houston Ship Channel, the 500,000 gallon Westchester spill on the Mississippi River in 2000, the 8000 barrel well blowout in Bayou Perot, LA in 2007 as well as the DM 932 oil spill in 2008 in downtown New Orleans. A graduate of the Coast Guard Academy, he also holds a Master’s Degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan and is a licensed Professional Engineer.

James Hanzalik is currently serving as the Vice-President of Clean Gulf Associates. He is a retired veteran of 24 years with the United States Coast Guard. His most recent USCG assignments include serving as the Chief of Response and Incident Management at the Eighth Coast Guard District. During the recent Deep Water Horizon oil spill, he served as the Federal On Scene Coordinator, Deputy Area Commander for Pollution Response and the Incident and
Deputy Incident Commander for the Incident Command Post in Houma, LA. In his prior assignments at the Eighth District, he served as Operations Officer on the National Strike Force Gulf Strike Team and as Deputy Commander of the National Strike Force. His responsibilities included leading team responses to oil, chemical spills, natural disasters including hurricanes and floods in along the Gulf Coast of the United States and the Caribbean. He has also served on the Coast Guard’s Incident Management Team, the USCG’s representative to the Interagency Board (IAB), and was the Co-Chair for the Regional Response Teams for Federal Regions VI, VII and VIII.

Frank Palmisano is currently serving as Vice-President of Clean Gulf Associates Services, the primary service provider for Clean Gulf Associates (CGA) oil spill response equipment. His current responsibilities include, oversight and management of the daily operations of Maintenance and Response, Accounting and Safety. He has been associated with CGA for over 23 years, previously through Halliburton Services and the Marine Spill Response Corp. In his prior assignments he served as CGA Program Manager, CGA Area Response Manager and Site Supervisor. His responsibilities include leading team responses to oil spills along the Gulf Coast of the United States for the CGA membership. He has been involved in numerous significant spill events over the last 23 years including the Tanker Mega Bourg in the western gulf in 1990, Tanker Westchester on the Mississippi River in 2000, the 8000 barrel well blowout in Bayou Perot, LA in 2007, the DM 932 barge oil spill on the Mississippi river in downtown New Orleans as well as the recent Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. His background and experience leans heavily in the mechanical field as he holds numerous certifications in Marine Diesel, Hydraulics and Marine Electric. He is a member of the CGA Technical/Operations Subcommittee.

A key aspect of CGA’s response arsenal to mitigate the effects of oil spills is through the government approval of dispersants by the Federal On-Scene Coordinator. Through a contract with Airborne Support Incorporated (ASI), of Houma, Louisiana, CGA members have access to more than 60,000 gallons of dispersant in the Gulf of Mexico area. With the assistance of ASI, CGA is able to maintain timely and reliable airborne delivery for its members by means of a modern turbo prop BT-67 and two radial Piston DC-3 aircraft as well as one spotter aircraft. CGA also provides vessel dispersant capability for targeted surface delivery from four Fast Response Vessels.

TTMS, a subsidiary of The Teichman Group, LLC of Galveston, TX is one of the premier salvage companies in the world with expertise in marine firefighting, oil spill response, commercial diving, and ROV operations. A contract with TTMS gives CGA the capability to provide timely and reliable response to large spills by means of high volume mechanical recovery equipment, including access to 11 sets of Koseq rigid sweeping arms and 2 Aqua Guard skimmers which have a combined effective daily recovery capacity (EDRC) of 241,000 barrels per day. In addition, TTMS provides a 2005 CITATION CJ-3 aircraft for direction of skimming assets.

Clean Gulf Associates Services, LLC

In January 2013, CGA entered into an agreement with Clean Gulf Associates Services (CGAS), an affiliate of The Teichman Group, LLC of Galveston, Texas. Under the terms of the contract, CGA owns its own oil spill response equipment and CGAS will store, maintain and operate the equipment and provide response personnel.

CGAS has created a network of highly professional oil spill response service providers to work hand-in-hand with CGAS employees during a response. The Preferred Response Organizations (PROs) program requires each company to meet specific criteria as it relates to safety and training. The CGAS dedicated personnel also provide training to other oil spill response organizations in order to maintain a highly professional and capable primary and surge workforce.